News abstract1

Target：collecting press releases about government decisions, technological developments, industrial news etc in the market sectors of Coal, petrochemical, gas, oil and nuclear

News Abstract No.1：

1. MTO Still hot?

China National Chemical Information Center (CNCIC) and London-based chemical consulting firm Tecnon OrbiChem said on Nov 15 that they will partner on a new study of the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) business using coal as a feedstock. The two consulting firms signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Nov 15 in Beijing to formalize their partnership that began several years ago.

2. PetroChina hot in CBM

TerraWest Energy Corp and PetroChina conduct CBM exploration in the isolated desert of southern Junggar Basin. The reserve, adjacent to the landmark " heart of Asia" - the geometrical center of Asian continent, covers an area of 653 square kilometers, and is said to hold an estimated 1.95 trillion cubic meters of CBM, the third largest deposit of its kind in China. Up to 10 wells have been drilled in the region called Liuhuanggou, immediately outside Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The project is currently operated under a production sharing contract, between TerraWest Energy Corp and PetroChina. TWE holds the first and only fully approved CBM production sharing contract in Xinjiang to date.

PetroChina plans to spend more than $1.5 billion over the next three years to develop 4.5 billion cubic meters of coalbed methane (CBM) production capacity - almost double the country's entire capacity at the moment. PetroChina's CBM operation in the 2,700-square- kilometer Qinshui Basin of Shanxi has achieved commercial operation. By the end of 2009, annual gas production in Qinshui reached 200 million cu m, one-fifth of its capacity. The exploration and development of CBM in East Erdos of Inner Mongolia has also made substantial progress。PetroChina's tenure area for CBM exploration and development in the Erdos Basin is 88,765 sq km, where geological resources shallower than 1,500 m depth amount to about 9 trillion cu m. Besides, PetroChina and BP have already agreed to cooperate in CBM development in the Tuha Basin in Xinjiang.

PetroChina Co and Royal Dutch Shell have agreed to jointly work on an oil and gas project in Canada and an agreement to jointly evaluate coalbed methane reserves in the Daning block of Erdos Basin in north China

China's coalbed methane production is expected to hit 23 billion cubic meters (cu m) in 2020, which will account for 0.7 percent of its energy mix, Zhang Hongtao, chief engineer

at the Ministry of Land and Resources, said in October. The country's production of coalbed methane now stands at 1 billion cu m annually.

3. CNOOC Overseas Step

CNOOC, Chesapeake close $1b shale deal on Nov 16 announced the completion of the Eagle Ford Shale project deal in the United States.

4. Coal Industry restructure

China will restructure its coal industry to create 10 enterprises with each having an annual output capacity of 100 million tons and leverage automation levels above 75 percent by 2015。National Energy Administration Director Zhang Guobao told a coal mining industry conference held in Beijing that the country will see another 10 enterprises each producing more than 50 million tons yearly, and 60 each producing more than 10 million tons, as part of the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015). The integration of coal mining, power generation and logistics also will be encouraged to produce more efficiencies in coal mining and related industries. North China's Datong Coal Mine Group is establishing the Tashan Circular Economy Park (TCEP) to act as a model of a circular economy. This forms a complete industrial chain: power plants, coal sorting plants, and water treatment facilities, where sewage and industrial waste water can be recycled so there are "zero emissions" with the waste water. Now, the Tashan model is "leading the development of the nation's coal industry" and can be applied nationwide.